The PC Gamer Hearthstone tournament

Hearthstone gets its claws into you. Blizzard's masterstroke is the way the game rewards you for a win—the shower of fireworks that springs from the screen every time you land a killing blow on the enemy hero.

The moment you start craving more of that experience, Hearthstone's got you—as it got us. Tim is almost entirely lost to it, spending his early hours researching deck compositions. Chris played played 50 hours when he reviewed the game, before bowing out mumbling something about mages. Andy booted it up for the first time when asked to prepare for this tournament, hated it, and then saw the fireworks—and now he's been sucked in, too.

The inaugural PC Gamer Hearthstone tournament gathers up all of that emotional and psychological investment, and pours it into a crucible of hot, middling competition. We can't claim to be the best players in the world, but everybody here wants to win: and everybody who gets knocked out is doomed to spend at least 20 minutes sulking in a corner.

That's the thing about the thrill of victory: the pain of having victory snatched away from you. It's a pain that only one of us won't have to feel today. Let battle commence!

The rules

l. Players must each prepare two decks, with strict limits on the number of epic, rare and legendary cards in each.

2. The four more experienced players are seeded randomly into single-elimination quarter final matches with the other four.

3. The winners of the quarter finals face each other in the bestof- three semi finals. Players can keep using the same decks.

4. The finals are also a best-of-three. The grand prize is a mixture of glory and the collective disdain of the entire office.